


Make Like a Tree

by SBG



Series: Little Problem [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 03:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBG/pseuds/SBG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's first escape attempt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make Like a Tree

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a palate cleanser for me! Always meant to revisit little Danny...

“Hey, no, Danno,” Steve said. “We don’t pee on the grown-ups’ shoes, okay, buddy?”

He cringed as soon as the words left his mouth. One minute of motherhenning his newly toddlerized partner and he was already speaking like a condescending jerk. He didn’t have any expectation that Danny picked up on it, but then again, this kid version seemed pretty sharp. His bright blue eyes shone with intelligence. And belligerence, actually.

“Not your buddy,” Danny said, with a startling amount of authority for a pipsqueak. He pointed at Steve’s urine-saturated boot. “Potty.”

Though it was far, far too late, Steve leaped back from the stream and shot a deathray glare at Kono for giggling. This was in no way funny. Steve could rattle off several other things it was, but funny was not one of them. His partner, his _boyfriend_ , had been reduced to a tiny little thing with a ginormous attitude and it wasn’t funny. No way, no how, no matter how much pee was involved. This was not a Three Stooges movie. 

“Onakea, Chin. You get his as … butt down here now.” 

Steve pulled Danny’s shirt, conveniently the yellow one today, off of the pile of clothes crumpled on the office chair and swiped ineffectually at the pee on his boot. Then he used the shirt to mop up the piddle puddle on the floor as well. He never liked the yellow shirt as much as the wide range of blues Danny owned.

“Which of you two wants to watch this little fellow while I deal with our bad guy?” Steve asked the remaining members of his team. “Kamekona said Onakea’s a shaman, not _kahuna_ and I think that’s significant. I aim to find out, but one of us needs to stay with Danny at all times.”

There were no more ‘aww, cu-ute’ reactions from the peanut gallery and Steve thought that ominous. It was. He turned to cajole Kono or Lori into babysitting duty to find he had been abandoned with the love of his life who seemed convinced Steve was no better than a toilet for him. Well, he’d won Danny over before and in rapid order. He had every confidence he would again now.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, buddy,” Steve said and crouched back down.

Danny took the opportunity to punch him in the left eye.

Steve wasn’t going to lie. It stung on more than the physical level. 

“NOT. BUDDY,” Danny said, as if shouting it made him sound like he was more in charge. 

Huh. Well, some things apparently didn’t change. Steve sighed and didn’t have to fake the sad expression he was sure decorated his face, and was actually glad no one was around to see the tears that were only partially due to the sucker punch. He and Danny had a connection. A deaging curse or whatever their rogue shaman Onakea had done shouldn’t have erased that entirely, and the thought that it had didn’t sit well in his gut. 

“Sorry, won’t happen again. You’re not my buddy, but I would like you to be. What do you say?”

“I say … no. I want to go home.”

“I’m sorry about that too, bu … Danny, but for now, you’re stuck with me.” 

“I want my mommy.”

“Your mom said it’s okay to stick with me.”

He was such a liar. Danny didn’t look like he bought it, but he also didn’t look like he was about to burst into tears. Steve frowned at the naked boy. Whether or not Onakea could fix whatever he’d done to Danny, the kid was going to need to put something on. He had no idea if a child should be potty trained at this age, but took the fact that Danny had designated Steve’s shoe prime portapotty territory suggested he could control it at least a little. It was that or Danny had peed out of spite. Frankly, either thing was possible.

“Okay, come on,” Steve said. He stood and waggled his fingers, though it was obvious Danny wouldn’t take his hand even if he could reach. “I think we need to get you to stop flashing your junk before Kono gets any funny ideas about uploading pics to Facebook.”

“No,” Danny said.

“We gotta teach you a new word.”

“No.”

“Yes.” 

Steve refused to have an argument with Danny right now. He was the adult here, he was in charge, end of story. He figured the yes/no/yes/no might go on for a solid hour, by the stubborn set in Danny’s jaw. He picked his partner up, tucked him under his arm and close to his body like a football and ignored the well-placed flailing of feet and hands against him as he walked to his office.

Fifteen long, exhausting minutes later, Danny’s adorable bits and pieces were swaddled in one of Steve’s extra T-shirts. Despite the monumental effort it had taken to get to that point, Steve was rather proud of how he’d managed to tie the knots securely but with the potential for quick release. He didn’t honestly want to think about shopping for actual clothes; this was Hawai’i. It wasn’t uncommon for tots to wander around mostly naked all day. Right?

Danny sat on Steve’s sofa, arms crossed, eyebrows knitted and very, very angry. They were having a sort of staring contest, the pair of them. It felt more like a standoff.

“Uh, Steve?” Chin said.

Steve broke the stare to glance at Chin, who’d poked his head warily into the office and didn’t look like he planned on venturing further in. What did it say about his team that they all ran scared from a two-year-old? Not that he wasn’t actually jealous and wanted to be running himself.

“What?”

“Having a time getting Onakea.”

“Dam … dang it,” Steve said. He gestured toward Danny, whose stink eye was magnificent now. “I need answers. I need this fixed.”

“Why don’t you and our little friend go get a shave ice or something? I’ll bet you’d like that, Danny, huh?” Chin said, voice soft.

“What’s shave ice?” Danny said, actually looking interested. And almost pleasant. 

Steve wasn’t jealous of Chin in the least. He wasn’t.

“You’ll love it, Danny, let’s go,” Steve cut in. He hauled Danny into his arms, again ignoring the jabs and the cries about being a big boy and walking. He paused at the door to tell Chin, “Call me the second you’ve got the guy.”

“Of course,” Chin said, and did him the courtesy of not laughing until they were out the door.

The drive to the beach was a challenge, but then everything involving Danny at any age was a challenge. Once this was all over (and it was going to be over, Danny wasn’t permanently stuck this way), Danny would owe him big time. Steve reached into the back seat to pull Danny out and got another punch, this one to the jaw. Damn.

“Danny, please. Please just be a good boy, huh? I’m trying to help you.” 

Steve ducked his head for a second as he crouched there, leaned his forehead against the passenger seat. He felt a tiny hand touch his shoulder and lifted his head to see Danny studying him carefully.

“Okay,” Danny said.

“Yeah?”

Danny nodded and, for the first time, they actually had a peaceful moment. Steve continued to carry Danny, liked the closeness even if it came with violence, but set him down when they reached the shave ice stand. He eyed the menu, trying to decide what a little kid would like. Cherry, maybe. Or grape. Something simple.

“Hey, what flav …” 

Oh, _shit_. Danny was nowhere to be seen. Steve, heart in his throat, dashed away from the stand, looking left and right down the beach for his towheaded, tiny partner and saw nothing. This was … how was it even possible for someone so small to disappear like that, in a blink of an eye? In a bout of uncharacteristic fear, Steve’s body froze for a moment while his mind raced. What if Danny got hurt when he was this little? What if Steve couldn’t protect him? What if some sicko pervert had walked off with his partner while he’d stood right there?

Loud, sudden gasps and cries pulled his attention to the right, away from the beach and toward asphalt and traffic and oh, shit again. Steve ran to a small but growing crowd, all of the people with their eyes cast to the sky. 

“Someone call nine-one-one,” a lady’s shaky voice cried. “That boy’s going to hurt himself.”

“Where are his parents? Holy hell.”

That boy. Danny. Steve followed the gaze of every person there, up, up, up a palm tree there should have been no way a child could scale. Yet, there Danny was, at the damned top of it. Steve pushed forward, fairly sure he identified himself as Five-0, but honestly, the visions of wee Danny falling to his death canceled pretty much everything else out. He didn’t hesitate a second, just leaped onto the tree and began frog jumping up it, the same way he had as a teenager. No way a two-year-old…

“Daniel Williams,” Steve said when he reached his partner. 

It occurred to Steve that he had no idea how he was going to get them both down, and he heard the faint sound of sirens approaching. He awkwardly grasped Danny and pulled him close, clinging hard to the tree with one hand. Danny’s tender skin had cuts and scrapes, but none looked too bad. Danny seemed to have sense enough to not struggle, eyes wide. 

“What do you think you’re doing? You just scared the life out of me.”

“Up,” Danny said, sadly, and heaved a sigh. “ _Away_.”


End file.
